Maybe something they are waiting to put in the Draconomicon or other later books?

Maybe it was decided that a base race should not possess the power of flight?

Maybe it was an oversight?

Having run a game with a dragonborn and spoken with the player about their experience playing them, I am fine with the 'no wings' thing. They seem alright by me as they are. True, a bit of a disappointment, but I am sure the way for giving a dragonborn flight will show up in the game eventually.

And maybe they were completely vestigal. There's no set rules on what features dragonborn or tieflings have. Both vary greatly throughout the art, including the snapshot right next to the racial entries (the two dragonborn shown have drastically different skull structures and the two tieflings have completely different types of horns).

If you want a pair of useless wings on your dragonborn, take 'em. It'd be no different than saying your human has a hump or your halfling has a sixth toe.

The wings in the picture are probably just preliminary artwork made by a contractor for Wizards of the Coast. They get told to draw a dragon-man sort of thing and some pictures come back with wings attached.

Or it could be a magic item, or it could be something that was in the rules before the release that they took out, or, or or or or...

The highest-level dragonborn in the MM, the Dragonborn Champion, indeed has wings and a fly speed, and it is even mentioned in the flavor text that he has actual wings, though there's no explanation given about why he has them.

And maybe they were completely vestigal. There's no set rules on what features dragonborn or tieflings have. Both vary greatly throughout the art, including the snapshot right next to the racial entries (the two dragonborn shown have drastically different skull structures and the two tieflings have completely different types of horns).

If you want a pair of useless wings on your dragonborn, take 'em. It'd be no different than saying your human has a hump or your halfling has a sixth toe.

Does hump let others get drunk?
"I'm gonna get you drunk off my lady hump"

"If you can't believe in yourself, believe in me who believes in you."
and
"Go beyond the impossible, and kick reason to the curb"
Kamina, from Gurren Lagann

Although it mentions in the Races and Classes section on Dragonborn "And some Dragonborn with particularly strong draconic heritage might manifest leathery wings." I guess they decided against that in the later design stages.

It'd be fun as a Paragon Tier Feat though. The Racial Feats at that level are quite dull...

Although it mentions in the Races and Classes section on Dragonborn "And some Dragonborn with particularly strong draconic heritage might manifest leathery wings." I guess they decided against that in the later design stages.

It'd be fun as a Paragon Tier Feat though. The Racial Feats at that level are quite dull...

I would put it as an epic feat. Flight seems to be harder in 4e than in previous editions, especially at-will, all-the-time flight.

Maybe the wings could be a feat tree? Like the first feat gives you a bonus to athletics checks involving jumping and maybe slow fall, second feat gives you flight. Could possibly increase the length of the chain. I just think that one feat granting flight is a bit much, no matter what level it's at.

Wizards get a daily fly spell at 16, and a daily fly spell that targets everyone at 22. Additionally, and most easily, there is a level 20 magic item that lets anyone fly (Flying Carpet), at will as a move action; the only downside is that you suffer a -2 penalty to AC and Reflex while doing so.

As for other flying things, there is a level 13 Paladin Encounter flying charge move, a level 10 Warlock Daily (that lets them fly and only fly; they're a cloud of bats or something), and a 16 Warlock Encounter.

So, limited flight is obviously Paragon and Constant flight is near epic (level 20 item, by the "rules" the earliest you could get it is 16) with a penalty. The best flight for everyone constant is an armor (but you have to land, level 23, and it's for clothies only) and the carpet.

So, in my games, I will be instituting 3 feats (which is what it was in "Races of the Dragon").

Dragonborn Wings (Dragonborn) [Heroic]
You grow nearly functional wings. These may have been vestigial your whole life, or recently grown.
Prerequisite: Str 13, Con 13
Benefit: Your jump DCs are not doubled if you do not take a running start. You gain a +5 racial bonus on Athletic checks to jump. Additionally, you ignore the first 2 dice of falling damage constantly.

Improved Dragonborn Wings (Dragonborn) [Paragon]
Your wings have grown stronger.
Prerequisite: Str 15, Con 13
Benefit: Once per encounter, as a minor action, you gain a flight speed equal to your speed +3 till the end of your turn. If you make a charge attack, you gain a +2 bonus on your attack and damage rolls.

I don't like flight as an epic tier racial feat. Supposedly racial benefits are only supposed to go up to paragon tier. I think a paragon tier feat that gives a fly speed as an encounter power would be more in keeping with other racial feats. How fast the fly speed is should be based on the character's base speed. Arguments can be made for it being a bit slower or a bit faster.
However, if you just want to have wings, and not necessarily fly with them, then I see nothing wrong with just having non-functioning wings, or a tail for that matter. There's no particular reason either of these things needs to be represented mechanically.

And maybe they were completely vestigal. There's no set rules on what features dragonborn or tieflings have. Both vary greatly throughout the art, including the snapshot right next to the racial entries (the two dragonborn shown have drastically different skull structures and the two tieflings have completely different types of horns).

If you want a pair of useless wings on your dragonborn, take 'em. It'd be no different than saying your human has a hump or your halfling has a sixth toe.

Just a point of note, the dragonborn and the tieflings looked radially different because each of the pictures next to the racial entries depict a male and a female member of the race.

In the campaign that I just started, The GM house ruled in dragon wings as a racial choice. I can fly for 3 rounds at my normal speed as a daily power. My flight will increase with levels (I can assume this means with racial feats).

A racial paragon path would be an interesting choice. And why not epic racial feats? Just because they don't exist doesn't mean they couldn't. Races should have epic representatives; the Dragonborn Champion (Monster) is lvl 22!

I meant to say those three feats I posted had prerequisites of each other. The Paragon requires the Heroic, and the Epic requires the Paragon. Sorry, I had assumed that was self explanatory and assumed myself into doing something that couldn't be understood. My bad.

Until they came out with a feat for it in 4.0 just use the feat tree from Races of Dragon from 3.5. You need the a 2nd feat Improved Dragon Wings to be able to fly and then only a lilttle bit a day until you reach a higher level. Just make it so you can not take Improved Dragon Wing until level 9 or 12. Use the rules given in the feat for limited use until they hit level 20, instead of level 10. I plan on using stuff from my 3.5 books at least until they come out with it in 4.0. You just need to take into acount the change in power from 3.5 to 4.0 and a lot of stuff from 3.5 can be useful.

PS. Paid for Book but have not got them yet. I wish I got my books early.

And maybe they were completely vestigal. There's no set rules on what features dragonborn or tieflings have. Both vary greatly throughout the art, including the snapshot right next to the racial entries (the two dragonborn shown have drastically different skull structures and the two tieflings have completely different types of horns).
.

There was art of a dragonborn with wings. Now that some of us have the books, it's been discovered that there is no feat, paragon or epic, to give them wings. What's the deal?

Where is it mentioned that the DragonBorn do not have wings?

Player's Handbookquote

Physical Qualities

Dragonborn resemble humanoid dragons. They’re covered in scaly hide, but they don’t have tails. They are tall and strongly built, often standing close to 61⁄2 feet in height and weighing 300 pounds or more. Their hands and feet are strong, talonlike claws with three fingers and a thumb on each hand. A dragon- born’s head features a blunt snout, a strong brow, and distinctive frills at the cheek and ear. Behind the brow, a crest of hornlike scales of various lengths resembles thick, ropy hair. Their eyes are shades of red or gold.

A typical dragonborn’s scales can be scarlet, gold, rust, ocher, bronze, or brown. Rarely do an individ- ual’s scales match the hue of a chromatic or metallic dragon, and scale color gives no indication of the type of breath weapon a dragonborn uses. Most dragonborn have very fine scales over most of their body, giving their skin a leathery texture, with regions of larger scales on the forearms, lower legs and feet, shoulders, and thighs.

Young dragonborn grow faster than human chil- dren do. They walk hours after hatching, reach the size and development of a 10-year-old human child by the age of 3 and reach adulthood by 15. They live about as long as humans do. /quote

There was art of a dragonborn with wings. Now that some of us have the books, it's been discovered that there is no feat, paragon or epic, to give them wings. What's the deal?

Where is it mentioned that the DragonBorn do not have wings?

Funny, one would expect the same description, and the accompanying stat block to mention functional wings if they had them. That is one hell of an editorial mistake if the original design had wings and they were left off of both the race's physical description and the mechanical description.

There may have been very early Dragonborn concept art, grown out of the 3.5 Dragonborn, that had wings. But there is very little published 4E Dragonborn art that shows them with wings, most of that which does is connected with the mechanical element that gives them wings.

All that being said, thanks to Dragon 421, you now have Draginborn with wings.